Mondo Guerra talks to AIDS service organizations at the launch of I Design, his national HIV campaign in collaboration with Merck. I Design helps empower people living with HIV to work with their doctors to take a “tailored” approach to their treatment plan. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision for Merck/AP Images)

The process of producing that fabric – a graphic pattern featuring plus symbols — not only ended up helping him win one of many design challenges on the popular reality television show, but it also aided him in coming to grips with some big challenges in his life.

Guerra, 34, has been HIV positive for 12 years but hadn’t told his family until he announced it on the show. The admission was life-changing for him personally and is changing the lives of others as well.

The Denver-born designer has become something of an AIDS activist, getting involved in education campaigns, visiting AIDS conferences and also speaking on college campuses and to young people around the country.

Guerra’s latest collaboration, I Design, is with the pharmaceutical company Merck. The aim is to help empower people living with HIV/AIDS to work with their doctors in taking a “tailored” approach to their HIV treatment plans. Having open and meaningful discussions with doctors about their daily lives is a key for those with HIV, because everyone’s experience is different, Guerra says.

Marilyn Monroe is shown on set in the 1953 film, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." The dress is accessorized with matching pink opera-length gloves that were placed high on her arms to create a continuous straight line extending from neckline. In her personal life, Monroe didn't wear this much jewelry.

He had no intention of writing about Marilyn Monroe — a subject he thought had been done endlessly — until watching a “Project Runway” episode when the contestants had to create a look inspired by Monroe, Audrey Hepburn or Jackie Kennedy. “I realized no one had ever done a book just about Mondroe’s style, but there she was, considered an icon,” Nickens said in a phone interview from Los Angeles.

Nickens collaborated with George Zeno, an illustrator who has spent more than 50 years collecting photos and memorabilia about Monroe, to write “Marilyn in Fashion, The Enduring Influence of Marilyn Monroe,” (Running Press, July). Using photos, her film work and press materials, Nickens and Zeno were able to chronicle the star’s style evolution from her humble beginnings as Norma Jeane Baker through her careful study of modeling and acting, to her transformation into Marilyn Monroe, actress and movie star. We’re freshly aware of her on the 50th anniversary of her death. She was just 36 when she died on Aug. 6, 1962.

One of the reasons Monroe looked phenomenal in photographs was that she carefully learned the tools of the modeling trade, Nickens said. “She applied herself at Blue Book as if she were on scholarship at Harvard.” She began modeling as a teen and her agent was among the first people to refine her look, teaching her to pose and lightening her hair. “She got much more work as a blond,” he said.

I wanted to like “Fashion Star,” NBC’s show about designers sharing their creations and trying to sell them to store buyers who bid on the looks immediately after they’re shown on the runway. But the whole thing is so scripted, choreographed and over-produced that it makes me feel sorry for the people creating these garments and even for the garments themselves. A $79 dress isn’t worthy of such scrutiny.

The success of such shows as Lifetime’s “Project Runway” is that for all the editing to emphasize the competition and cat fights among the designers, at least viewers get to see the creative process.

Cameras hover in the workrooms as designers sketch and drape and come up with ideas; viewers go along as contestants shop for fabric, cut and sew their designs and fit them on models. The audience begins to commiserate as designers scrap one design and come up with another in the 11th hour, or have trouble completing their looks on tight deadlines. You listen when the mentors give thoughtful criticism and the judges share industry insights.

On “Fashion Star,” you see little process and a lot of chatter. You have dancers in the background, light shows and music worthy of a Las Vegas production, all for a garment or two from each designer. Too much sizzle, too little steak.

Here are a few more reasons why this show will fade faster than dark denim in hot water.

The Fashion Studio at the Denver Art Museum is a place to try your hand at draping and fashion illustration.

Starting with Friday’s Untitled # 45 Haute, the Denver Art Museum is hosting a slew of special events and activities for fashion lovers during “Yves Saint Laurent: The Retrospective.” Here’s a rundown:

Untitled # 45 Haute
As part of its final Friday of the month Untitled series, the museum from 6-10 p.m. offers a number of activities around the museum including a fashion show, performance by Buntport Theater, on-site interior design consultations, hands-on haute couture skills workshop, local music, food and a cash bar. Ticket info at ysldenver.com

Unfortunately, if you’re not already holding a ticket to the fashion show, you’re out of luck because it’s sold out. Denver designer Fallene Wells and Forever Darling invited contestants from the TV show “Project Runway” to design a collection inspired by Saint Laurent. The designers — including Julie Tierney and Michael Costello — will be present. The crowd and a panel of judges will vote on the evening’s winner.

Mondo Guerra , one of three finalist for "Project Runway All Stars", is in a finale viewing party for friends and a fundraiser for Denver Capital AIDS project at EXDO Event Center in Denver, Colo, on Thursday, March 22,

Wearing a red tuxedo and polka dot socks, black and white patent leather shoes, his hair in its signature pompadour, Mondo was clearly in his element Thursday night.

For the finale of “Project Runway All Stars” he was throwing a big party with a carnival theme. “Mondo Bazaaro” took over the Exdo Event Center and an estimated 400 people were on hand. The decor included balloon arches and a giant blow-up clown head and hands, a dunk tank, and much like the televised competition, games of skill.

For all the frivolity, there was still an anxious edge to the evening as the national broadcast of the “All Stars” finale got underway and the crowd didn’t know if Mondo was going to win or lose to Austin Scarlett of Michael Costello.

And that applies whether or not you’re spending months toiling away alone or demonstrating your craft in full view of TV audiences and judges, he says.

Mondo, (we’ll just call him by his first name, everyone else does), the Denver-based designer and “Project Runway All Stars” contestant, is closing in once again on one of the finalists’ spots on the popular fashion competition on Lifetime television.

After tonight’s challenge and elimination, airing at 7 p.m., four designers will remain. (The finale is March 22.) Mondo is expected to attend the show’s regular viewing party at Capitol Hill’s Beauty Bar tonight, 608 E. 13th Ave.

The evening dress from Rachel Hurst, shown at the Diet Pepsi Style Studio fashion show presented by Simon Doonan at Lincoln Center on Feb. 9, 2012 in New York City.

Among the more than 200 official shows taking place during Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week was one in which an emerging Denver designer got a chance to take her turn on the runway.

Rachel Marie Hurst, who started House of Rae Marie about a year ago, was one of four designers chosen by Diet Pepsi to bring a little “hometown” flair to Manhanttan during fashion week. Hurst and three other designers created three looks each that they showed in The Box at Lincoln Center Thursday night to a celebrity-studded audience. The designers were briefly mentored by Simon Doonan, and got to show off their looks in a Jonathan Adler-designed space.

Among those attending were Mary-Kate Olsen, who with her sister Ashley has a few clothing brands she’s promoting herself. Also on hand were Debra Messing, who’s in the new NBC TV show “Smash,” Sandra Lee of Food Network, actresses Kristen Chenoweth (new series “GCB” debuts in March) and Kelly Rutherford (“Gossip Girl”), and the “Jays” — Jay Manuel and Jay Alexander of “America’s Next Top Model.”